Built into every horror movie is the fierce, if fragile, hope that the protagonist will prevail over their attacker. The stalker will be arrested, the demon banished with an exorcism, the serial killer met with the same grisly end that he’d planned for his victims. Twenty-five years ago, Final Destination turned that hope into sinking horror — some fates, it reminded us, are simply inescapable.
Directed and co-written by James Wong, the horror movie made our best-laid plans seem never more insignificant and our bodies never more vulnerable, prone to horrific violence and danger from everyday situations twisted to their most barbaric ends. In doing so, it introduced cinema’s most invincible, unrelenting villain — death itself.
